Tag Archives: Viral Marketing

Mobile 1 to 1– is No. 1

Big data technology keeps giving brands more and more personal information about YOU. The rise of technologies available to brands keeps enabling each brand to know intimate details about consumer behaviors. These technologies deliver opportunities to create more personal, 1 to 1 customer experiences (PCX) that will hopefully earn loyalty from customers, not only for their own satisfaction, but also for giving recommendations to others.

What would now be the brand’s strategy for PCX? It is being reported that there is a billion-dollar market for advertising sales on mobile videos. Major wireless carriers will be selling personalized ads that can target 1 to 1 with advanced Web videos. Digital PCX will also help retailers improve their omni-channel blend between digital, mobile and physical — “brick and mortar”– in innovative ways.

Drawing by Art Winters

What does this all mean for the future of PCX? Is the future of media all about our mobile devices? This rapidly advancing mobile age has certainly created remarkable omni-channel experiences for consumers everywhere in the world, from obtaining instant news, entertainment, to shopping options galore. The interaction that must now be an essential factor for developing strategic PCX is and will continue to be mobile.

With the newest mobile technology in the hands of the customer, retailers are increasing their use of mobile devices to enhance the in-store sales associates’ ability to better serve their customers face-to-face. Whether it is to check prices of competitors; expand the inventory beyond what the store can or does carry; read reviews; arrange for special ordering and shipping; and even to geotarget customers with special and relevant offers as they move through the store.

A newer app option to explore is the concept for visual searching – photographing an item seen on someone while in the street and asking the retailer what they have that is similar.

Both the brand and retailer’s mission is to help the customer enjoy the shopping experience and deepen the relationship between them.

Up to this moment in “cyber news”, the press release has worked as a significant contributor to what we used to call journalism. The press release was able to give reporters and editors at newspapers and magazines – print, and TV, radio — broadcast media an essential story. Relevant information was the currency between news makers and news reporters.

Now, there are so many omni-media ways for the PR practitioners to reach their audiences: blogs, tweets, social media, e-mail newsletters, webinars, et al. And, in this cyber world, search engines provide another major tool for omni-information seekers. The press release remains useful as always, if it is relevant in this new environment of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). P.R. managers and marketing directors may possibly add “journalist” to their job descriptions, since at this time they manage many more operations and produce publishable content, which can directly reach their key audiences.

If there was a period when the preponderance of media might have been a problem for a public relations operation to continue using the press release, it’s no longer the case. One of the reasons the release gained publishing power, is because it helps to deliver the coveted SEO. As such, these optimized links have brought companies their most useful keywords, helping them to obtain more acceptance on the Internet. This is now a successful strategy to aid brands and companies with their online presence and recognition.

However, these optimized links are being questioned. Some industry voices have described these as “link devices,” warning that the anchor text in the news release will no longer build a company’s SEO and creating more links may even damage SEO. Thus, brand content groups that produce readers to build “unnatural” links will be seriously stymied.

Point — Counter Point!!

As always, if the press agent dished out bad information, the media rejected it. If they provided valid news of relevance to the media’s audience, the media appreciated the helpful, newsworthy information. There are fewer gatekeepers to filter the news, aka content. Then as now, high content stories provided in today’s press releases could still service market education and offer online discoveries through the omni-channels.

Therefore, we believe the press release is still a valid marketing strategy and tool, even if it is different from the past. It needs to strive to be an effective communicator of authentic and timely content.